Weather Channel meteorologists stress severity of Hurricane Sandy

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It’s looking like Hurricane Sandy is going to be as bad as meteorologists have predicted it will be.

Because many on the East Coast are expected to potentially lose power, The Weather Channel has been live-streaming its round-the-clock television coverage online so that people can still keep up with the news on their mobile devices. Bryan Norcross, the channel’s senior hurricane specialist, tells Entertainment Weekly that the network is trying to keep its tone “serious yet urgent” as the hurricane stays on track with The Weather Channel’s previous predictions.

“Our goal has been to get people to appreciate the magnitude of the storm and try to prove to them that, based on everything we know, that this is going to be a system that is outside of their experience,” Norcross says.

He adds that The Weather Channel has intentionally opted out of calling Sandy “Frankenstorm,” saying, “Being cute about this storm is not the right idea.”

Meanwhile, The Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore, whose nickname is “The Hurricane King,” tells The New York Observer, “This is the most nervous I’ve ever been about a storm. There’s just too much uncertainty.”

The network as tried to use its coverage to underline just how severe Sandy is. The Weather Channel’s Twitter account called it “an extraordinary storm, an extremely serious threat,” while on-air meteorologist Vivian Brown has defended the channel’s decision to focus 100 percent on the impending hurricane.

“We want you to know we are not hyping this storm, okay?” she says. “We don’t do that at The Weather Channel because we want you to be alert and aware.”